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Waking up, Jake struggled to get out of bed, not due to his body still being weak, but the allure of just laying there five more minutes. Alas, he had to get moving, so he got up and did some unnecessary stretches. Looking over his own body, he found most of his armor still in shambles, but at least he wasn’t outright dirty, as the arcane energy had thoroughly destroyed any blood that had gotten on him during the fight. He still went for a dip in the pond outside of the lodge to freshen up before heading into town to check up with Miranda.

Jake took out the cloak from his inventory – an item he didn’t really bother wearing anymore due to how useless it was – to at least cover up the broken armor. Looking at least a little representable, Jake made his way to the main office building of Haven, releasing a Pulse of Perception to confirm Miranda was there. She was currently alone in her office, giving Jake a perfect opportunity to sneak in.

He quickly made it there, and before he had time to knock on the door, she spoke from within.

“Come on in.”

Jake complied as he opened the door, seeing Miranda surrounded by papers and seemingly hard at work as always. He also felt that she had not quite reached C-grade yet, but she was close. Very close.

[Human – lvl 199]

He reckoned she was dealing with a quest or two, as Jake heard that it usually took most a bit of time to do those. Especially the race quests. Something Jake had not experienced due to the… peculiarity of his circumstances.

It was also possible Miranda was just delaying her evolution on purpose to upgrade some skills. A bit like how Jake wanted to upgrade all his Malefic Viper skills before his own evolution.

“How did your adventure in the termite hive go? None of the drones sent out by Arnold caught you leaving, and I suddenly just detected you back at your lodge, so what happened?” Miranda asked, her voice not really concerned but more curious.

“I would say it went pretty well. I am relatively sure I took down the top Queen as well as the strongest fighter in the form of the Isoptera Hive King. Afterward, I had to tactically retreat as C-grade warrior termites came swarming, which does confirm there are more C-grades around,” Jake answered.

“We are aware. Arnold’s drones have scouted quite deeply, and while the hive does appear weakened, it is far from doomed. There are dozens of D-grade Queens still, and I am having a meeting with the World Council later today to discuss how we will address this threat looming under our feet. I assume we will likely create hunting parties and assemble an army of sorts to go and clean it out, at least as much as we can. In the deeper reaches, the termites seem busy dealing with other C-grade monsters, so hopefully, cutting off their resource supply from the surface and severely limiting their potential for growth will deal a heavy blow. Based on my understanding, a C-grade Queen cannot birth another C-grade Queen directly, requiring these D-grades to grow and evolve on their own. As long as we kill all the D-grades, we should thus cut off their future potential,” Miranda explained.

“Sounds like you got things handled,” Jake nodded, happy to hear that Arnold had agreed to help and, from the sounds of it, even done a stellar job.

“We should indeed have a grasp of the situation. Hunting the C-grades ourselves currently isn’t possible, though I will bring up the possibility with the Sky Whale if he can provide monsters capable of breaking into the deeper layers from the oceanside and create some chaos,” Miranda smiled. “Don’t worry about allowing more C-grades to enter human land. We will handle this thing without you needing to get involved, so just focus on your own projects.”

“See, this is why delegation is the ultimate superpower,” Jake grinned, happy to hear he would not have to deal with any of the cleanup or hunting of the termites himself. While he would welcome another Hive King to fight, he didn’t want to just go on a rampage slaughtering endless numbers of weak C-grade Isoptera Warriors. Hunting down D-grade Queens sounded even worse.

Miranda just waved him off before asking: “There is one thing I have been meaning to ask you. Haven, as in the city here in the forest, is at the moment rather limited in area and population very much purposefully. However, we have had a flood of applications from people who want to move here, especially influential figures and their relatives. I am talking about family members of City Lords, and-“

“They can go to the Fort,” Jake cut her off. “Keep Haven as it is. There is no reason for it to grow into a damn metropolis and ruin the good vibes. Let everyone who is already here stay, and still allow in people actually worth having around. High-level individuals who have some level of actual power, not just political clout. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer for Haven not to turn into a hive of political bullshit but have it be more of a relaxing place for powerful people.”

Miranda smiled at his response. “Glad to hear we are in agreement. I have already had to keep a lot of recruiters out, people wanting to scout the powerful adventurers who have taken up residency. Many former mercenaries of the Holy Church, Risen, and United Cities Alliance now find themselves without any faction and, seeing as they want to stay independent, have set their sights on Haven. Will you be fine with these people coming?”

Jake thought for a bit before answering. “If they are strong enough. Just don’t have too many flooding in and ruining things for everyone. No one wants endless queues at the nice skewer shops. Anyway, overall, I think you are a lot better at deciding this than I am.”

“I will do so, but I still value your input,” Miranda nodded. “Now, was there more you wanted to discuss? I have to prepare things for the upcoming meeting.”

“Just one thing: when are you evolving? What is stopping you?” Jake asked curiously.

“Nothing is stopping me; I just have a few skills related to my class that I want to improve and touch up on to specialize myself properly in C-grade,” Miranda answered. “As for when I will evolve… should not be too long, but it all depends on if I can actually find time to practice my magic and not be stuck in endless meetings or distracted by city owners finding huge world-threatening termite hives.”

“So you want me to not report world-threatening termite hives in the future?” Jake asked teasingly.

“As long as you leave them in a state where they are no longer world-threatening, sure,” Miranda shrugged. “It would have been outstanding if you had decided to spend a few months wiping out every termite in the hive and never told me about it. But we both know that wouldn’t happen, so kudos to you for actually reporting it.”

“Why do I feel like you aren’t really praising me?”

“What? How is it not praise to recognize your ability to do what most would only consider the expected course of action? You being responsible is outside the norm and needs positive reinforcement,” Miranda said with a smile.

“I feel like I am getting bullied here,” Jake said, faking hurt. “Screw this place; I am going back to the Order.”

“Oh, sure, flee to a different universe. Go have your fun,” Miranda waved him off, indicating there wasn’t more for him to deal with. If she did need him for something, she was a big girl and could contact him herself.

Jake headed out of the office and back to his underground lab as Jake headed for the teleporter he had set up down there. A few minutes later, he was once more dragged through the void and back to the first universe, appearing in the grass area outside the mansion.

The first thing he did was check in on the Bee Queen ritual, where he saw things were going as expected. It was pretty much ready for the final push to actually awaken the Queen, and even if he decided to do this final push now, a C-grade would hatch. But Jake wanted more than that to test if he could actually control all this Primeval Origins stuff.

Let’s get to work.

He had cores, he had time, and he had ideas. Combat was truly the best way for Jake to progress, and he felt like his energy control had improved quite a bit from this fight, where he had finally allowed himself to let loose. He was now also fairly sure that he had missed some very basic things from his prior experimentation.

His arcane affinity was far more central to this entire thing than he had first thought. He had several more insights too, and he didn’t bother to do anything else than just get started on his core manipulation work. So, with no further ado, he just jumped right into it once more.

Time slowly passed, and outside of greeting Meira and asking Duskleaf for some basic input, he did not allow himself to get distracted as he reflected and experimented. Reflected on how he would create an item capable of truly affecting the evolutionary trajectory of another creature.

Every time Jake had affected evolutions, Touch of the Malefic Viper had been involved… but to call what Jake did transmutation during those times didn’t feel entirely accurate. He had recognized before that aspects of the skill still had to be applied as Jake was ultimately transforming Records and energy. However, Jake was now beginning to wonder if even that was all there was to the story. What he did was no simple transformation.

He fundamentally changed something. Transmutation had its innate limits, and it obeyed rules set by the system. Strict rules. The most central of which was the often-discussed law of equivalent exchange. More Records were never created during a transmutation, but all one truly did was mix and change those already present. If one wanted “more” Records, a fusion of different materials or the use of high-level catalysts was required. But, again, this did not create more Records than the sum of their parts, even if it could appear so at times.

The most potent catalysts were those directly provided by the system. Like the item Jake had used to upgrade his boots when he was in D-grade or what the Sword Saint had told Jake about having done to his old ancestral sword. In Jake’s case, he had brought out Records related to the item, while the Sword Saint had amplified and heightened the quality of the Records of the Sword.

Both were fundamental qualitative changes that resulted in better items. However, improving Records through outside items was not only possible for equipment or treasures.

Monsters could consume items with Records to level up and improve. Special items could affect their evolutions if they possessed enough Records. All of the system-provided items, such as the Mystbone Mystie and, subsequently, Sylphie had used were also system-provided. A whole slew of these items had been spread on Earth upon its integration, and all of them were effectively insanely powerful Unique natural treasures.

Humans did not have treasures like these. But they did have things they could consume for Records, and the human variant of these Unique treasures was actually Grimoires. When one consumed a Grimoire, one consumed Records to affect one’s Path.

Jake’s Grimoire-creating skill had a cooldown period between every attempt and an even longer one if he succeeded. He had wondered why this was but quickly found the answer: it took an investment of something more than energy. If he was right – and the books he studied supported him – one had to put in actual Records. He had found this when he studied how to make Grimoires without the use of a skill and found many warnings that doing so could adversely affect yourself as every Grimoire required some of your own Records, and if one overdid it, one could suffer a permanent loss.

Records were odd like that. Some Records would apparently regenerate by themselves, not unlike the ethereal mental energy, or perhaps more importantly for what Jake was doing, the Records required in the process of creating a child. Having a kid did not result in you getting weaker, even if the child inherited Records. There was one important thing about both of these, though: they were assisted by the system. Some even theorized that the parents of children did “lose” Records temporarily, but the system simply restored them.

So… Jake got thinking. What if Jake had not just injected energy into these items he had created… but proper Records? The kinds of Records that one could not usually inject into something? The kind of Records that would result in damaged foundations and lead to lowered potential if not helped by the system? The kind only allowed to be given when the system allowed it? What if he had fundamentally changed items to bring them closer to these Unique natural treasures?

His Identify had not worked on the meteorite Sandy had eaten, but he still remembered the description of the Mystbone.

[Mystbone (Unique)] – A Mystbone granted by the system to the newly integrated 93rd Universe. Contains a vast amount of energy and Records that will allow any beast that consumes it to grow far faster and gain magical skills and abilities related to the path of mysticism.

These items were only created by the system. Weaker versions were around, naturally spawning from powerful dead beasts or just appearing in energy-dense environments, but they were nothing compared to these items. After Jake had become aware of things like the Mystbone, he had looked into if making them was possible and quickly found the answer to be a big fat no.

One could not simply create Records from nothing, so to make one, one had to use their own. This did sound like a possibility, but in order to create an item usable by a monster, you had to make it compatible. That was where the big hurdle was. Records to an individual were unique, tied intrinsically to the Truesoul. It was only when the system allowed a transfer of Records to happen it was possible, such as the aforementioned reproduction process or when making a grimoire.

However, there were ways to break the rules. There were ways to circumvent restrictions and do what should usually not be possible. Ways for the system to allow the impossible to be possible and make exceptions.

Transcendents… which still had a cost. A cost that rarely, if ever, matched what one gained.

And, of course, Bloodlines.

What if Jake injected Records related to his own Bloodline into every single of these specific items he had made? That somehow his Records had allowed the innate Records in an item to change? Change into an item with innate Primal Energy, as Jake called it?

If that was the case, then Jake’s ultimate question was: if the system could create these Unique natural treasures that allowed monsters to evolve down a certain Path, why couldn’t he? All the books said he couldn’t. Everything told him it was against the system’s rules.

All that really told him was that what he had done with Sylphie and Sandy had broken the rules.

But the thing is… when had Jake’s Bloodline ever cared about the rules?